The Life of Jason Ray
June 29, 1974 |
April 17, 2005 |
Jason was born in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and lived with his parents Steve and Linda and brother Eric in New London and Groton, Connecticut, Orlando, Florida, Bremerton, Washington, Winthrop Harbor and Mahomet, Illinois, and Monticello, Minnesota. After graduating from Monticello High School in 1992, Jason attended St. Cloud State University to study business. He moved to Annandale, Minnesota, where he was primarily self-employed as a dealer in sports memorabilia.
As a youth Jason enjoyed baseball, soccer, golfing, bowling and camping with his Boy Scout troop. He earned the rank of Eagle in 1989. Jason enjoyed sports and was an avid golfer and snowboarder in his early twenties. His favorite current sports were disc golf and kayaking. He founded the annual disc golf tournament at Sumac Hills Course at the Tim and Kathy Ray farm near Barrett. He designed and created the traveling trophy and started the course’s web site. Jason was an organizer and he loved getting his friends and cousins together for activities.
Jason
was known for his
entrepreneurial spirit.
Shortly
after high school, Jason and Gene Kiphuth started a video rental store
in Annandale. He founded BobbleHeadDolls.com
and sold sports memorabilia on e-Bay as well as at several shows
including
the annual Twins Fest. Along with his business partner Scott Keeler, he
was most proud of obtaining the contracts for and manufacturing Bobble
Head Dolls, including all four of the famous Minnesota Vikings Purple
People
Eaters; Carl Eller, Alan Page, Gary Larson, and Jim Marshall; as well
as
quarterback Fran Tarkenton. His creation of a Bobble Head Doll for
football
legend Chuck Foreman led to a close friendship with the former Viking.
His
company was featured in an article in the Wall
Street Journal which was later reprinted in the Star Tribune
in
March,
2001.
Jason
was also known for his
generosity, not only
with
the thoughtful gifts he found or made, but also with his time. Whenever
someone needed help, Jason was there. He was very happy with his life
and
it is hard to find a picture of him from the time he was little where
he
doesn’t have a big smile on his face.
Jason
was famous for his thriftiness and outlandish business
ventures. For example, he carried around a beat-up St. Cloud
State
University student ID card for nearly 12 years after he
stopped attending, in the rare case of a student discount.
Jason drowned while kayaking on the Snake River near Sandstone, MN, on April 17 (see more).
Jason will be greatly missed by
his family, friends,
and
his long-time love, Colleen Commerford.
Picture Gallery
Below are a small number of the thousands of photos of Jason. More photos will be added as they are labeled and sorted.
More pictures can be found at the Slide Show from Jason’s Funeral.
